Julie Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American actress. Before becoming well known for her voice role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, Kavner attracted notice for her role as Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister of Valerie Harper's title character in the sitcom Rhoda, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also voices other characters for The Simpsons, including Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, and half-step-great-aunt Eunice Bouvier.
Known for her improvisation and distinctive "honeyed gravel voice", the second daughter of Rose ( Steinbock) Kavner (1918-2010), a family counselor, and David Kavner (1917-2016), a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in Southern California. She decided to pursue a career in acting because "There was nothing else I wanted to do, ever". A year later, Rhoda Morgenstern became the leading character in a spin-off called Rhoda. Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern, sister of the eponymous character. She also received four Golden Globe Award nominations. In 1975, she received Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her starring role in the daytime special The Girl Who Couldn't Lose.
Following Rhoda, Kavner had a guest appearance on Taxi and appeared in the 1985 comedy Bad Medicine as well as the 1987 film Surrender, both of which were box office failures (and also starred Steve Guttenberg). and Two for the Seesaw, directed by Burt Reynolds.
Kavner was then cast as a sidekick to Tracey Ullman in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted on Fox in 1987. Kavner described the show as, "like being back in school, a chance to play a wide variety of characters, some really vicious people, to not rest on laurels, to not play it safe". Kavner has what Hilary de Vries of The New York Times described as a "honeyed gravel voice". Kavner says her voice is due to "a bump on [her] vocal cords".
Although Marge is her highest profile character on the show, Kavner's favorite characters to voice are Marge's sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier because "they're really funny and sad at the same time". Series creator Matt Groening instructed Kavner to voice the duo as characters who "suck the life out of everything". Both have similar raspy voices, but Patty's voice is more masculine and has a lower register, while Selma's voice is a little sweeter. Kavner also provides the voices of every other female member of the Bouvier family, including Marge's mother Jacqueline, Great-Aunt Gladys (a dead relative who was introduced on season four's "Selma's Choice"), and an unnamed grandmother seen on the season six episode "Fear of Flying". Kavner takes recording sessions seriously, and feels that voice acting is "a little more limiting than live acting. And I have nothing to do with my character's movement." Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart Simpson, said in her book My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy (2000) that Kavner is a warm person who is "a workhorse of an actor" with "extraordinary professionalism and quiet work ethic", and notes that she is rarely late for recording sessions. Kavner had very few recorded interviews in regard to her work on the show. In behind-the-scenes footage from 1992, she describes Marge as "a wonderful person" with "a great sex life". On a 1994 appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, Kavner explains that performing the voice of Marge in a live-action setting would break the illusion of the character, and that she does not want her own likeness to overlap with that of the character. However, after being coaxed by Letterman, Kavner turns to face away from the camera and speaks briefly in the voice of Marge.
Until 1998, Kavner was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing to cast new voices. The issue was resolved a month later, and Kavner earned $250,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Kavner and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.
At the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards, Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Marge in the season three episode "I Married Marge". For her performance in The Simpsons Movie, Kavner was nominated for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature at the 2007 Annie Awards, but Ian Holm from Ratatouille received the award. Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews, and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever to find its way into a movie based on an irreverent cartoon". Some scenes in the movie, such as Marge's emotional video message to Homer, were recorded over 100 times, leaving Kavner exhausted.
Further career
<!-- Deleted image removed: right|200px|thumb|Kavner's portrayal of Dottie Ingels in [[This Is My Life (1992 film)|This Is My Life was her first leading role in a feature film.]] -->
Many of Kavner's roles have been described by New York Times writer Hilary de Vries as a "woman who is supportive, sympathetic, or self-effacingly funny". Kavner interviewed several nurses in preparation for the role, and Penny Marshall, the director of the film, described Kavner as "a low-maintenance actor [...] You never have to worry about giving [her] back-story for her characters." Allen described her as "a naturally funny person. When she does a scene, you listen to her and look at her, and the prism through which it's all filtered is funny." Kavner believes he is "a true filmmaker, one that has something to say, continually experimenting on different themes within his own film-making", adding that "anything [Allen] ever does, I always want to do, [...] I don't even have to read it."
She has done voice-over work in films such as The Lion King 1½ (2004), Dr. Dolittle (1998) and an uncredited role as an unseen public-address-system announcer in A Walk on the Moon (1999). She worked with Tracey Ullman in the HBO sketch comedy series Tracey Takes On... She was cast as the mother of Adam Sandler's character in Click, released in 2006, which marked her last appearance outside of The Simpsons until her role in the James L. Brooks film Ella McCay (2025).
Personal life
Kavner is Jewish. She lived in Manhattan during the 1990s. Neither of them confirmed being married, though reports referred to her as his wife at the time of his death.
In 1983, Current Biography referred to Kavner as an avid athlete and pescetarian. In a 1992 interview with The New York Times, she said she was considering retiring "except for doing three days a year for Woody [Allen]", but had a feeling that she would receive a script she wanted "to do more than life itself" upon retiring.
| Direct-to-DVD
|-
| 2006
|scope="row"|Click
| Trudy Newman
|
|-
| 2007
|scope="row"|The Simpsons Movie
| Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier (voices)
|
|-
|2022
|The Simpsons Meet the Bocellis in "Feliz Navidad"
|Rowspan=2| Marge Simpson (voice)
|Rowspan=2|Short film
|-
|2024
|May the 12th Be with You
|-
|2025
|Ella McCay
|Estelle
|
|-
|2027
|The Simpsons 2
|Marge Simpson (voice, pending)
|Upcoming
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Television work by Julie Kavner
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 1974–1978
|scope="row"|Rhoda
| Brenda Morgenstern
| 110 episodes
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1975
|scope="row"|The ABC Afternoon Playbreak
| Jane Darwin
| Episode: "The Girl Who Couldn't Lose"
|-
|scope="row"|Katherine
| Margot Weiss Goldman
| Television film
|-
|scope="row"|Petrocelli
| Julie
| Episode: "To See No Evil"
|-
| 1976
|scope="row"|Bert D'Angelo/Superstar
| Billy Gordon
| Episode: "The Brown Horse Connection"
|-
| 1977
|scope="row"|Lou Grant
| Alice
| Episode: "Housewarming"
|-
| 1979
|scope="row"|No Other Love
| Janet Michaels
| rowspan="2" | Television film
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1980
|scope="row"|Revenge of the Stepford Wives
| Megan Brady
|-
|scope="row"|Taxi
| Monica Banta Douglas
| Episode: "Tony's Sister and Jim"
|-
| 1983
|scope="row"|A Fine Romance
| Laura Prescott
| Television film
|-
| 1987–1990
|scope="row"|The Tracey Ullman Show
| Various characters
| 43 episodes
|-
| 1989–present
|scope="row"|The Simpsons
| Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier, Jacqueline Bouvier, Additional voices
| Main role
|-
| 1990
|scope="row"|42nd Primetime Emmy Awards
| Marge Simpson (voice)
| Television special
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1991
|scope="row"|Sibs
| Julia
| Episode: "Honey, I Shrunk My Head"
|-
|scope="row"|To the Moon, Alice
| Sitcom Producer
| Television film
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1994
|scope="row"|Birdland
| Madeline Diamond
| Episode: "Grand Delusion"
|-
|scope="row"|Don't Drink the Water
| Marion Hollander
| rowspan="2" | Television film
|-
| 1996
|scope="row"|Jake's Women
| Karen
|-
| 1996–1999
|scope="row"|Tracey Takes On...
| Various characters
| 14 episodes
|-
| 2014
|scope="row"|Family Guy
| Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier (voices)
| Episode: "The Simpsons Guy"
|-
| 2015
|scope="row"|Late Show with David Letterman
| Marge Simpson (voice)
| Episode: "Final Show"
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Video game work by Julie Kavner
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 1990
| scope="row" |Storybook Weaver
| Mayzie Bird
|
|-
| 1991
|scope="row"|The Simpsons
| Marge Simpson
|
|-
| 1994
|scope="row"|Storybook Weaver Deluxe
| Mayzie Bird
|
|-
| 1996
| scope="row" |The Simpsons: Cartoon Studio
| Marge Simpson
|
|-
| 1997
| scope="row" |The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield
| rowspan="2" | Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier
|
|-
| 1999
| scope="row" |Simpsons Bowling
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2001
| scope="row" |The Simpsons Wrestling
| rowspan="3" | Marge Simpson
|
|-
| scope="row" |The Simpsons: Road Rage
|
|-
| 2002
| scope="row" |The Simpsons Skateboarding
|
|-
| 2003
| scope="row" |The Simpsons: Hit & Run
| rowspan="3" | Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier
|
|-
| 2007
| scope="row" |The Simpsons Game
|
|-
| 2012
|scope="row"|The Simpsons: Tapped Out
|
|-
|2025
|scope="row"|Fortnite Battle Royale
| Marge Simpson
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Music video work by Julie Kavner
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Song
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Artist
|-
| 1990
|scope="row"| "Do the Bartman"
| Marge Simpson
| The Simpsons
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Theme park work by Julie Kavner
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 2008
|scope="row"|The Simpsons Ride
| Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, Selma Bouvier
|
|}